Most of us strive for success by building on strengths and seeking out solutions. The attitude that you bring to this challenge will have physiological effects. If attitudes are generally positive then they will improve your personal performance in each situation, especially the impact you have on others. Before long this becomes a positive and self-perpetuating cycle.
We actually become the person that we see ourselves becoming.
If you can picture your success and hold that picture firmly in your mind then you greatly improve your odds of continuing success. We actually become the person that we see ourselves becoming. Mentally walk yourself through a variety of situations visualising the type of outcomes that you would like to achieve.
When images like this are regularly fed into the mind then our neurochemistry is attuned to that expectation. These thoughts literally shape our operational style and direct our performance.
I make it a practice the night before I do a Seminar to mentally visualise the day before me. I use my imagination to see the response of the people that I will work with and to anticipate their positive input. I see them coming up to me at the end of the Seminar and thanking me for the knowledge that I have shared. I visualise myself presenting the material enthusiastically and listening attentively to any questions. Ninety-nine percent of this time this is exactly how the day unfolds.
Thoughts can move subatomic particles.
It may surprise you to know that thoughts can move subatomic particles. These particles are the tiniest forms of matter and energy that science has discovered so far. Particles assemble in many different forms. Our bodies are made up of these particles and they spin around the nucleus of the cells that make up our brain, our bones, our bladder and every other part, from the most remote outpost of cranial baldness to the bottom of our big toe. They are found in all parts of the planet and across the vast expanses of space. Physicists have given them some interesting names like Muon; Tauon; Neutrino.
These subatomic particles are constantly on the move, spinning about their axis at incredible speeds. Scientists are curious to know how fast they move and in what directions they move. Trying to measure a subatomic particle’s movement is more difficult than measuring the running patterns of three hundred eight year olds released into the school playground at lunchtime.
The problem that physicists have come up against is that when a scientist attempts to measure the spin of a particle the particle plays a trick. If the physicist sets up his apparatus to measure the particle to see if it spins in Direction A, then when the experiment begins the particle is found to be spinning in Direction A. If the physicist moves to check Direction B, then the particle is found to be spinning in Direction B. The particle is always found to be spinning in the reference direction chosen by the experimenter.
“It is a property which completely undermines any attempt to make sense of the concept of direction in the quantum domain” says science writer Paul Davies. “It also introduces a bizzare subjective element into the physical world. If the spin of a particle is destined to follow forever the experimenter’s random choice of reference direction, the experimenter’s free will somehow intrudes into the microworld. The uncanny slavishness that obliges all spinning particles to adopt the experimenter’s definition of angle is suggestive of mind over matter. (my highlight).” (Davies 1985, p.33)
Here once again we find evidence that thoughts actually cause changes in the material world. So plan a positive day in your mind. Visualise yourself enjoying your work; making good people contact; getting the results.
Toning up the mind is just as important as toning up the body. If you run negative images through your mind at the beginning of the day then you shape both your body and your brain for a negative response. Our brains shape our thoughts and our thoughts shape our brains. If you can get in control then your mind and body will work together to ensure your success.
You can use this attitude control throughout the day. Stay visually ahead of the things you do. When you have to see a client, senior manager or staff member visualise the meeting going very well; visualise yourself enjoying the contact. This type of positive visualisation will set up brain waves that are in harmony with the brains waves that would he produced if you have a good meeting with a client.
Viktor Frankl witnessed unspeakable horror as a prisoner in a Nazi Concentration Camp during the Second World War. He was one of the few survivors of the Holocaust. He has personally experienced the terror and hardships of incarceration and yet he writes of the triumph of attitude:
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. (my highlight) (Frankl 1984, p.86).
Davies, Paul. (1985). Superforce. London. Unwin Hyman Ltd.
Frankl, V.E. (1984). Man’s Search for Meaning. New York. Washington Square Press.